Australia Day - by the sea

After all the wet weather and floods, it was great to get out by the water (with about 1,000 of our closest friends) and play in kayaks, eat sausages and rissoles, drink (ginger) beer and have a generally good time.

The surf out on Currumbin Alley in the kayaks was a lot of fun too.

Rolling again.

The injured shoulder is well on its way to full recovery so given the green light to get out there, I've wasted no time using it to get rolling again .... both in the kayak and on the mountain bike.

Dean0 and I took the shoulder out for a test run at Daisy for an easy Sunday afternoon cruise.

.... it was then onto a koala spotting night ride through Daisy. Glad to see that there really are koalas out there in the Koala Forests.

Always great to get out with mates to test the fitness and catch up on the latest.

Sandy boats and muddy bikes

With only a few days before my much anticipated shoulder surgery, I got out for a paddle and took photos of my muddy mates at a mountain bike event. All great fun.

More muddy bike photos can be found here.

Foggy bay morning

Some swell fun

All good fun. Click the image to see the video.

A different week

A week of hanging around on above cliffs watching the local wildlife including whales, turtles, dolphins, fish, hawks, sea eagles and waves.

.... attacked my the worlds largest cockroach ....

... discovering a colony of the rare sleeping bag bats ....

... and going for a paddle in the winter sunshine.

Close to home

It was great to be able to sneak in a quick paddle close to home between school holiday taxi commitments.

After travelling all over Qld and living on tropical islands for six months, paddling at Redcliffe was also good enough for Ben Southall of "Best job in the world" fame. We are lucky to be able to paddle in such  great locations and conditions in the middle of winter and so close to home.

Some fun in the surf

The forecast 20-25kts and 2m seas on a 2m swell didn't eventuate but there were some fun, clean waves to be had on the Gold Coast yesterday.

Click here to see the video.

Playing in boats

photo: Eddie Safarik

The weekend was spent playing in boats on the Maroochy River. There were lots of friends with lots of boats to try out. The photo shows Brian catching some swell on the bar .... he enjoyed the wave. Its good to live in Qld where the water is always warm.

Dam the rain

So much for this being the year of the bike :-(   ... the rain has made it very difficult to hit the dirt on the mountain bike. On the bright side though, the dams in SE Qld are almost completely full which made for good paddling at Wivenhoe Dam on the weekend. Lawn right down to the waters edge and beyond, no sharks ;-)  and great company.

12 days in the tropics

(photo: kk&jen)

An image of red cliffs and blue water from a 12 day sea kayak trip up the eastern side of Hinchinbrook Island last August. A great place to walk or kayak. 

Dugongs, dolphins and turtles

(click for larger version of image)

Eight friends, eight kayaks, beautiful weather and a long weekend on Moreton Bay. Add to that a large amount of animal wildlife including dugongs, dolphins, stingrays, sea eagles, black swans and heaps of turtles and you have a recipe for a great weekend.

Kayaks sharing a quite moment at Clarkes Pt

at the top of Lamb Island.

"OK, who pulled the plug on the water?"

You take the diesel, and we'll take the paddle,

and you'll get to climate change before us.

A kayak rainbow on Gumnut Beach

30 boats on the Bay

(click on image for larger version)

There were over 30 sea kayaks out on Moreton Bay for a combined QSKC and Claytons club paddles. Great weather, socialising and paddling were the order of the day.

Although I didn't see it, a very large dugong was following me for a short distance, surfacing just behind me before diving under the waves. Luckily dugongs are vegetarians.

To Hells Gates and back

When its hot as hell outside, why not take a trip to Hells Gates

(in a sea kayak of course).

Coochie

A great day to paddle or to sail on the bay with 10-15kts of wind. The timing was perfect as we came close but not too close to a flotilla of about 30 yachts as we headed across to Potts Pt. The tide was high so we were able to explore the mangroves of Coochie. .... but where did Henry go?

Back on the water

It was good to get back on the water for the first time after the 12 day Hinchinbrook trip back in August. Myself and a few others did some sea kayak leader training in preparation for leading some trips for QSKC. This photo shows the conditions as pretty calm but we were sheltering from the 20-23kts. A good day out.

Coombe to Dunk ... and almost dunked

 

  

It was time to leave the small coral beach of Coombe and paddle the 12km crossing to Dunk Island. The forecast and actual conditions were the same so it was a couple of hours of heart in the mouth paddling in the 25kts of wind and 2 metre seas that were short, choppy and occasionally breaking. At one point I found myself chest deep in water looking down the face of a steep 2 metre wave ..... for me, that was a challenge. The boat performed well and I coped with the conditions while Sea Mongrel was enjoying the change from calm seas for the first time on this trip.

Unfortunately, the video below doesn't capture the more challenging nature of the paddle.

19km crossing to Coombe Island

 

Another perfect paddling day for the 19km crossing from Hinchinbrook Island to Coombe Island in the Family Group of islands. There were hopes of seeing Migalu (the white whale) as it had been spotted in the area in the last couple of days, however no whales were sighted today.

Video by Sea Mongrel

Blacksand & Sandwich

 

(click on images for larger view) 

Stopping in at Blacksand Beach on the way north, Nina Peak climbs out of the forest as if to bid us farewell.

 

The 9km paddle up Ramsay Bay was on totally glassy aquamarine water. Here KK and Jen round Cape Sandwich before heading to Sunset Beach. The complete lack of swell allowed us to get up close and personal with the rocks.

Nina Bay

The conditions remained perfect with little to no wind for our paddle around to Nina Bay. Many turtles, fish and stingrays were seen.